Conditional discrimination in Octopus vulgaris

Tokuda, Koji; Masuda, Reiji; Yamashita, Yoh

doi:10.1007/s10164-014-0414-4

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…When an orientation cue was too difficult for discrimination, octopuses could be trained to use it by being given easy contrasts and then finer and finer discriminations [37]; acuity could be trained. Subsequently researchers found that octopuses could use conditional discrimination with these cues, when it was positive during one environmental situation, aeration on, and negative when the aeration was off [48]. Octopuses could also learn these visual cues to perform reversal learning, when the positive choice was well learned it was switched so that it became the negative, and so on [49].…”

Section: Visionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Octopus Consciousness: The Role of Perceptual Richness

Mather

2021

NeuroSci

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It is always difficult to even advance possible dimensions of consciousness, but Birch et al., 2020 have suggested four possible dimensions and this review discusses the first, perceptual richness, with relation to octopuses. They advance acuity, bandwidth, and categorization power as possible components. It is first necessary to realize that sensory richness does not automatically lead to perceptual richness and this capacity may not be accessed by consciousness. Octopuses do not discriminate light wavelength frequency (color) but rather its plane of polarization, a dimension that we do not understand. Their eyes are laterally placed on the head, leading to monocular vision and head movements that give a sequential rather than simultaneous view of items, possibly consciously planned. Details of control of the rich sensorimotor system of the arms, with 3/5 of the neurons of the nervous system, may normally not be accessed to the brain and thus to consciousness. The chromatophore-based skin appearance system is likely open loop, and not available to the octopus’ vision. Conversely, in a laboratory situation that is not ecologically valid for the octopus, learning about shapes and extents of visual figures was extensive and flexible, likely consciously planned. Similarly, octopuses’ local place in and navigation around space can be guided by light polarization plane and visual landmark location and is learned and monitored. The complex array of chemical cues delivered by water and on surfaces does not fit neatly into the components above and has barely been tested but might easily be described as perceptually rich. The octopus’ curiosity and drive to investigate and gain more information may mean that, apart from richness of any stimulus situation, they are consciously driven to seek out more information. This review suggests that cephalopods may not have a similar type of intelligence as the ‘higher’ vertebrates, they may not have similar dimensions or contents of consciousness, but that such a capacity is present nevertheless.

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Section: Visionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Octopus Consciousness: The Role of Perceptual Richness

Mather

2021

NeuroSci

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“…In the current study, A. aculeatus individuals required 21-36 trials to learn to identify a white ball (Experiment 1: learning real objects). In comparison, Octopus vulgaris individuals subjected to operant conditioning required 1-15 days, with 10 trials per day, to learn to touch a stimulus during pre-training for conditional discrimination learning (Tokuda et al, 2015). Octopus vulgaris also required an average of 17 trials to learn to choose a red ball and an average of 22 trials to choose a white ball during pre-training for observational learning (Fiorito and Scotto, 1992).…”

Section: Learning Real Objectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The abilities of octopuses have been examined in most detail by using visual learning, including discrimination of shapes (Sutherland, 1962), orientation of objects (Sutherland et al, 1963), and conditional discrimination (Tokuda et al, 2015). Furthermore, octopuses demonstrate visual social learning, such as observational learning (Fiorito and Scotto, 1992), similar to vertebrates such as fish and primates (van Bergen et al, 2004;Fredman and Whiten, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical OctopusAbdopus aculeatusCan Learn to Recognize Real and Virtual Symbolic Objects

Kawashima

Takei

Yoshikawa

et al. 2020

The Biological Bulletin

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We used three consecutive operant conditioning tasks to determine whether the tropical octopus Abdopus aculeatus is able to learn to recognize a symbolic object, in either real or virtual forms. In Experiment 1, we examined whether octopuses can be conditioned to a real object (a white ball) and whether such trained individuals can select the conditioned object when they are presented with an unconditioned object. We show that octopuses learned to respond to and select the conditioned white ball in preference to the unconditioned object. In Experiment 2, we examined whether octopuses can be conditioned to an object that gradually changes from real to virtual (i.e., an image of that object on a computer screen). We presented four types of objects, all variations of a white ball, in a stepwise sequence as a conditioned stimulus: a real white ball, a real image of a white ball without a margin, a real image of a white ball centered within a black margin, and a virtual image of a white ball (a video on a computer screen). Individual octopuses learned to respond to all three real objects, and then a subset of these octopuses responded to the virtual object. In Experiment 3, we examined whether an octopus can learn a virtual image of an object with a specific shape not tested in Experiments 1 and 2. We presented octopuses with an image of a white cross, which was placed at various distances (i.e., close, medium, and far). We found that after having learned these images, octopuses could learn the virtual white cross on a computer screen. Furthermore, when we simultaneously presented octopuses with a conditioned virtual object and an unconditioned virtual object, they selected the former. Through these three experiments, we confirmed that A. aculeatus can learn both real and virtual specific objects.

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“…Despite criticisms proposed to the original finding, the capability of learning from others is documented in octopuses and also recently in other cephalopod species [63 ]. Octopuses and cuttlefishes can demonstrate conditional learning [64,65]. As reviewed by Huffard [49 ], male octopuses in the wild exhibit mating tactics consistent with their size-based chances of winning agonistic contests, suggesting learning of rank followed by conditional use of mate guarding.…”

Section: Criterion Judgement Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%